Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motor vehicle beams, such as longitudinal beams and/or crossbeams. The present invention relates in particular to crossbeams formed as bumper beams, a term which is frequently used in the relevant field of expertise.
Description of the Related Art
In the case of motor vehicles, there is often the technical problem of supplying cooling air to units arranged within functional regions surrounded by portions of bodywork. This applies for example to the engine compartment, which inter alia is surrounded by the engine cover and the wing and into which cooling air can generally be fed through a radiator grille, which is at the front in the direction of travel, in order to cool units such a coolant heat exchanger and the like.
Technical solutions are known here for providing a vehicle component with a through-flow opening which can be opened or indeed closed to different degrees by adjustable flaps for the passage of air. Air flap systems of this type can achieve, on one hand, low-emission, rapid heating of the internal combustion engine and, on the other hand, adequate convective cooling of units.
Recently, engineers and designers have been increasingly attempting to utilise the available installation space in a motor vehicle as efficiently as possible, and this has led to units and connection means in the motor vehicle, in particular in the engine compartment, being considerably condensed. This could lead to a situation in which although air flaps of an air flap system uncover a through-flow opening through which cooling air flows, this cooling air only reaches the units to be cooled to a limited extent, since additional components or assemblies of the motor vehicle may be arranged in the flow path from the air flap system to the unit to be cooled, which components or assemblies divert or block off the air flow passing through the through-flow opening in part or the units to be cooled in full.
A possible solution thereto could be an air-guiding device arranged downstream of the air flaps in the flow direction, which device guides cooling air passing through the through-flow opening in a targeted manner to the points at which convective cooling is required. However, this leads to another assembly needing to be arranged in a functional space in the motor vehicle.
The problem addressed by the present invention is therefore that of providing technical teaching that makes it possible to guide cooling air in a targeted manner to the points at which it is required for convectively cooling functional parts and functional assemblies, without increasing the number of components required therefor.